Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-21

debtor, and the law should not continue
its sanction of q practice which has be-
come public evil. 1 therefore recon-
mend the amendment of our attachment
law so as to provide that hereafter
in. case an attachment is levied
upon the merchandise of mer-
chant or dealer that such attachment
shall be deemed an act of insolvency,
and upon the petition OF any other cred
ltor filed in court within limited time
and verified properly, that the court, after
giving notice to debtor and attaching
creditor, shall appoint a receiver, vacate
the attachment and c. use the assets to be
distributed among all the creditors pro
rata. l merely outline this suggestion
and leave proper detals and safeguards
to be supplied by your upe:ior wisdom. j
also respectfully call % your attentions
the numerous and important changes in
our penal laws recommended by our
court of appeals and embodied in the
report Of the late attorney-gene already
laid before your honorable bodies. A
careful examination of these suggested
changes is due to the high source from
which they emsnate, and I doubt not but
that many of the suggestions will com
sideration, and their adoption effect val
able Improvements in our laws.
THE RAILROADS
| feel ii g duty to call to your attention
certain phases of the railway question
and to ask your thoughtful and patriotic
consideration thereof. 1t is scarce more
than fifty years ago when these servants
of commerce and of the public were
wholly unknown, and yet so rapid and
marvellous has been the progress OF their
construction and development that
a large percentage of the wealth
of the world is invested in
their securities, and their powers,
legitimate and usurped, overshadow even
the majesty of government and frequently
defy its authority. 1t could scarcely be
expected that these new and powerful
agencies so rapidly developed and revo-
lutionizing in few short years the social
and business habits of the civilized world
could be readily adapted to the wants
and necessities of the public without fire.
quent frictiOns and frequent imposi-
tiOns, even under the most favorable
circumstances and the most prudent
and patriotic management, and in dealing
with the problems engendered by this
great revolution in commerce and trans
portation, we should remember that time
and experience are essential agencies in
aiding US TO determine the Just and true
solution OF the problem, in bringing
about that reciprocal understanding and
agreement between the public and the
railroads as to the relative rights of
both, which is essential.
No intelligent citizen can bear hostility
to railroads or to the interests of those
who have seen proper TO invest their
means in their construction and
operation, and every fair minded
man will admit that these in
vestments are entitled to the same pro-
lection as is accorded to all other classes
of property, and reasonable return
thereon by way OF dividends. There can
be no desire on The part OF any right
thinking man to iDiure or destroy their
investments, for the grand work they
have accomplished in the march Of civil
lzation and industrial development, and
their absolute necessity in the interest OF
modern commerce Is freely conceded
even by those who complain most loudly
of their real or supposed impCsitions OF
exactions.
1HC pOItIJ VI OUl SIdlG HAS DSGU, anu
still should be, to encourage their con-
tinued construction until all of the remote
parts OF the commonwealth are brought
into easy and rapid communication with
each other, thus facilitating and encour-
aging an interchange of products, ideas
and associations, and cementing more
firmly each year the bonds which lind US
together as one homogeneous people.
If their property should be ruthlessly
assailed, or their operations interfered
with, the state is pledged and will cheer
fully redeem its obligation to extend the
fullest guarantee of security. But in re-
turn for this, the state should insist upon
perfect obedience to her laws and that
loyal allegiance to her behests which is
due and exacted from every other class
of citizenship.
The manifest intention of our constitu-
ton in the matter OF railway regulation,
though not expressed in direct terms,
was to encourage competition and to dis
courage or forbid combinations among
these public agencies.
Until within late years it was gener-
ally believed that competition was the
true solution of the railway problem, and
that the construction of new and COM
peting lines would gradually bring the
matter of transportation to that sound,
economic basis encountered in all other /
business and which constitutes check |
upon monopoly and imposition. But the |
science of railway management has over
come this fundamental principle of po-
itical economy and has discarded it as a |
relic of barbarouS age. Gigantic COM |
oinations of wealth and power have alb |
sorbed thousands of miles of detached or
railways, and have con-
them, practically into one
under one management, and |
she same spirit and skill have determined |
hat there shall be no railway competi- |
ion in this state, but that all the roads
shall enter into articles of co-partnership |
md divide the profits upon some basis
agreed upon. In modern
this combination is called a
traffic arrangement" but, in fact, it is |
he same pool denounced by our fore
athers and by the courts of all states in
which it has been legally tested.
| am aware that it is urged in justifica-
ion of this arrangement that it tends to
.qualize rates, especially between the
arger and smaller shipping points, and
gives stability to legitimate business, and
While the argument in this behalf is, in
nv Judgment, specious and delusive, yet,
f in fact it was conclusive, and multi
1lied other blessings should flow from it,
he spirit of the constitution and the law